One day after current Hulk alter ego Mark Ruffalo tweeted that there were no plans for a standalone Hulk movie – only to further confuse matters by explaining that there could be a standalone Hulk movie, someday, because really anything can happen and also giant corporations love making money – Avengers director and Marvel Movie steersman Joss Whedon took the time to weigh in on the ambient possibility of a Hulk movie. The writer-director tells IGN that the rumors of an extended multi-movie Planet Hulk storyline are, in a word, “Nonsense.” See his snappy response in this video below:

Whedon is currently making the rounds at SXSW for his Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing. But because it’s harder to ask questions about Shakespeare than about superheroes, he’s been fielding questions about Hulk all over the place, and tells Deadline that he views the character as “The most difficult Marvel property because it’s always about balance. Is he a monster? Is he a hero? Are you going to root for a protagonist who spends all his time trying to stop the reason you came to the movie from happening?”

He also notes that, perhaps understandably, Mark Ruffalo would prefer to act in a movie that doesn’t require him to wear a motion-capture ping-pong suit for 99% of his screen time – problematic, since people are probably going to see a Hulk movie expecting to see a big green man punch things, and not a relatively normal-sized man make wry asides and perform cool science experiments. So, in the immortal words of Confucius, there won’t be a Hulk movie until there is a Hulk movie. Maybe Christopher Nolan could direct it.